PRODUCT REVIEW: Chia Pods

As nutrition graduate Felicity Curtain explained, these expensive little “super-foods” while being very nutritious, have a similar nutrient profile to many cheaper and just as healthy alternatives.

With the amount of people buying chia seeds on the increase, it is completely understandable for these seeds to start popping up in expensive food products. For example: Chia Pods. But is this new product a tasty and healthy alternative to other on-the-go snacks?

Read on to find out my opinion…

These pods are available in Vanilla Bean, Mango, Banana and Blueberry flavours. While I am yet to try the blueberry flavour (can’t seem to get my hands on it!), the three flavours I have tried were pretty nice. Odd, but nice.

TASTE:

The first mouthful was interesting for me. The texture is hard to ignore… It is a pudding-like texture but the chia seeds have made a very thick and gluggy consistency. While I feel the flavour of the chia seeds are flavourless, I recommend the Mango or Banana over the Vanilla Bean flavour as I found the Vanilla Bean was just a little bland and boring.

CONVENIENCE:

These days it seems all anyone ever cares about is convenience. With most people living extremely busy lifestyles, some feel if they can’t eat a food product on-the-go between tasks, then the product will not be of use to them.

Chia Pods are convenient and great for an on-the-go snack. They even come with a little spoon, although I personally found that the spoon couldn’t handle the thick jelly-like consistency of the pudding.
You kind of feel like you need to gulp down the whole pudding in one go it is that difficult to spoon up.

NUTRITION:

I thought I would nutritionally compare a tub of Chia Pod to another type of on-the-go snack, a tub of yoghurt.

Clearly yoghurt is a better source of protein and calcium; however Chia Pods have a greater content of healthy fats and fibre. Both the Chia Pods and the single serves of yoghurt are portion controlled and contain roughly similar amounts of kilojoules.

At the end of the day it really depends what you want to get out of a product. If you are after a protein-rich snack, full of calcium and probiotics, opt for the yoghurt. If it is a good serve of fats and fibre you are after, give the Chia Pods a try.

What Would Jenna Do (WWJD):

While the Chia Pods are nice, my wallet does not necessarily appreciate their purchase on a daily basis. So I think I’ll have a happy mix of yoghurt, Chia Pods, homemade chia pudding and other great nutritious snacks to keep me going in between meals!

If you are keen to make your own chia pudding, check out my recipe here.

Sorry to say it but, they were handing these out T the quiksilver pro on the Gold Coast , with Kelly slater endorsing it, I had a vanilla bean pod, and I would try one ever again, gluggy , flavourless and yuck , I didn’t like it , shame I didn’t try a different flavour, but vanilla bean is a due unless you like eating cold porridge that looks like snot . Any way good luck with it

I bought 3 pods, all different flavours. What a waste of money. I love chia seeds but I don’t want to buy the whole factory. Terribly overpriced, flavourless, and it has made me realise I can do exactly the same thing at home for a smidgeon of the cost of the supermarket ones. Improve them quickly or they will soon disappear off the shelves

I am eating the mango chia pod right now. While the texture can be described as slimy/gluggy, it tastes like fresh mangoes and I am loving it. I paid $3.99 for one and probably won’t be buying these on a daily basis.

Can you comment on whether Chobani is made from the milk of cows that have been fed GMO’s? Either way I won’t touch milk products unless they are raw, unhomogenized and certified organic. Therefore the chia pods win hands down when compared with Chobani, because they are GMO free and natural. You pay for quality. I tried the vanilla bean, flavour which had a lot of cinnamon in it. It tasted really nice. I rarely ever eat processed foods, but this is a good alternative for those days when you’re out and about longer than expected and need a healthy snack and can’t find an organic wholefood store anywhere.

I find chia pod useful in dealing with constipation. As I have a limit on the amount of fibre I can consume, I find I can only eat half a container at a time, but even this small amount seems to do the trick.

Tried vanilla, mango, & banana flavours last week. Vanilla is just bland, would not get again. Mango devine and banana very tasty. The price though, my goodness, I think I paid 3.60ish at Coles (‘new’ produce special). The texture is cool, slightly reminded me of roe, just less ‘popping’. Will be looking to make my own instead.

I think I am the only person who likes the vanilla bean one the most! Occasionally I Have it for breakfast with a cut up banana mixed through. I know what your thinking, why not just get the banana flavour? and I would say because a fresh banana just tastes better and goes really well with the blandness of the vanilla bean. But as everyone else has said it is super expensive so it is only an occasional breakfast. super yummy though!

I just bought a box of them at Costco for $9.99. It was a case if Vanilla Bean and Banana. Wish it had the Blueberry. But I have never heard of these until I saw them in Costco today. The banana definitely tastes like a ripe banana which is not what I prefer, however, I added a bit of cinnamon and it was better. I will try to the Vanilla Bean tomorrow. I figure I can doctor it up a bit if needed by adding Vanilla extract or Vanilla whey powder plus fruit if it needs it. But I liked it. I think they will make great breakfasts for when I am too lazy to cook in the morning.

The texture of these remind me of tapioca pudding, personally. Relating Chia Pods to tapioca pudding has helped me not dislike, and even like, the gooey thick texture. So far I’ve tried Banana and Mango, and really liked both. I have yet to try Vanilla or any of the other flavors (there seems to be more flavors since this was written? I saw Strawberry at the vegan market I pick these up from), but I’ll try to keep in mind what people here have been saying about the Vanilla flavor. Thanks for the review!

Thank you for the nice review of my beloved Chia Pods! I am in NYC and I agree they are super expensive, but I adore them. I always loved tapioca pudding and now someone else has ‘made’ it for me. Previously, I have been using 4 Tablespoons of chia a day to help with the fiber flow, so I am well used to those effects which are great for me. (The person who had bloating, perhaps their diet is very low fiber?) Of all fibers, chia is by far the most effective for me. For example, Psillium does nothing at all for me.

I agree they are very pricey. I first tried them in desperation, needing a ‘fast food’. Then I tried making my own. I think Chia pods people maybe have an excellent source of coconut milk. Mine did not turn out as beautifully. Has anyone made it here and what brand/kind of cocoanut milk did you use?

Hi Anne, thanks for the comment!
I have used a reduced fat canned coconut milk in the past when making my own. No particular brand!
Hopefully we hear from some others and see what they are using!
Jenna

I just tried the banana chia pod and the taste is very different not something you would normally crave but not bad. I added some cinnamon for extra flavor and let me tell you it totally did the trick. I also purchased the coffee and vanilla i cant wait to try the coffee one because i love coffee and after the bad coments on the vanilla flavor i will be adding fresh banana and probably a bit of cinnamon we will see how that goes.

I tried the Vanilla Bean one because I’ve been trying to find some healthier snack alternatives. Oh man. All I can say is that this was really hard to choke down. The slimy, thick consistency and just the appearance of the thing itself made it feel like I was eating somebody’s snot or God knows what instead of food. I wouldn’t say that it tastes bad, actually this particular flavor didn’t taste much like anything, but the it’s getting past the texture that is the challenge of eating this. Thank goodness it has a lid because there’s no way that I would be able to eat the whole thing in one sitting. Based on how much I was able to munch on, I would say the one container will last me for three or four snacks. Definitely will stick with my yogurt over this.

I bought 4 flavors in hopes that I would enjoy them. On their own, it is thick and hard to finish the entire pod. So I divided the pods in half and blended them with some organic Greek yogurt. What a delicious turn of events! Coffee chia with vanilla yogurt, chocolate chia with raspberry yogurt (yum yum), banana with strawberry banana yogurt, vanilla chia with blackberry yogurt. I also mixed half the chocolate pod with a vanilla protein drink and it was a huge hit in my house. They are expensive but when you consider I get 2 servings out of one pod, the price doesn’t sting so badly. I will keep experimenting with these pods to create new and delish products.